Several years ago, Dr. Louis Schmier felt compelled to write an essay. Writing was nothing new for the Valdosta State history professor. He’d written books, such as “Valdosta & Lowndes County: A Ray in the Sunbelt.”

It was how he wrote this essay and what he did with it that was different. This essay also signaled the beginning of a journal chronicling his evolution as a teacher.

This essay signaled an epiphany.

Schmier was preparing for a trip. It was the night before. A thought hit him. The urge to write struck him. And Louis Schmier wrote. Immediately. Quickly. No worry about grammar, spelling or syntax. He wrote his thoughts but, more importantly, perhaps, Schmier wrote his gut feelings.

He did not edit the piece or rewrite it. He didn’t even save the essay for himself, but Schmier did send it to a couple of colleagues on a computer system used by a few academics.

Technology has progressed in the past 15 years. What Schmier once used to send his “Random Thoughts” to a couple of colleagues has become the Internet with his essays now reaching thousands of Web users around the world.

But Schmier’s collection of “Random Thoughts” also charts the progress of a teacher during the past 15 years. The essays chronicle how Schmier moved from one way of thinking and teaching to a completely different way of teaching.

“I’ve become the guide on the side and not the sage on the stage,” Schmier says.

Recently, a collection of his essays from his Web site (therandomthoughts.com) has been compiled into a third book, “Random Thoughts III: Teaching with Love.”

Collected from his “Random Thoughts” entries from 1996-98, the essays are bursts of creativity, inspirations, epiphanies, doubts, questions, and tough self-examination. A regular power walker, Schmier puts in an average of five miles every other day, often hours before dawn.

“That’s my time,” Schmier says. “I comb my brain with The Washington Post crossword puzzle. I walk. ... That’s my ‘just to’ time. That’s when things percolate. I see metaphors and connections. ...”

If some thought or idea or reflection happens to “percolate” on a given morning, Schmier sits at his computer and “I pound out a ‘Random Thought’ in about 15 minutes and then I send it to about 20,000 people.”

Schmier is amazed at how his “Random Thoughts” have captured the interest of so many readers through the years. As the Internet came into being and more people discovered it, more readers discovered “Random Thoughts.” He is scheduled to travel in May to China and has readers who contact him from across the globe. Schmier kept adding people to his e-mailing list while recipients often forwarded the essays on to more readers.

Still, initially, Schmier did not save his essays; however, some readers were saving them. Schmier learned this when publishers contacted him wanting to publish his “Random Thoughts” as book collections. He hadn’t pursued such publication, but some of his readers had.

Schmier finally agreed, when publishers agreed that he would only have to make minimal corrections to the original texts. He hadn’t allowed the contrivances of writing to hamper the message of the essays in their original form and didn’t want such contrivances surfacing once compiled in book form. He now collects his work on the Web site and he runs spell check before sending them, but that’s about the extent of his re-editing his work. Instead, he focuses on the journey.